DOI Kapitel:
Preface
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61302#0016
iv
PREFACE
is mentioned in her place on the Acropolis, just as Dionysos
is treated of in his temples and theatre, Asklepios in his hieron.
My rule throughout has been to examine the stranger gods
only as they occur in the text of Pausanias, and to reserve all
thorough investigation of local mythology for the Essay. In this
matter of the distinction between popular local cults with their
endless diversity and the orthodox and ultimately dominant
Olympian hierarchy I should be ungrateful if I did not acknow-
ledge my deep debt to Sir Charles Lyall’s fascinating Asiatic
Studies, a book that shows a marvellous insight into the
“ tangled jungle ” of classic polytheism. The twelve orthodox
Olympian gods have so imposed themselves upon our modern
imagination that it is perhaps only those who, like Sir Charles
Lyall in India, have watched mythology in the making who
can realise a classical world peopled, not by the stately and
plastic figures of Zeus, Hera, Artemis, Apollo, Athene, and
Hephaistos, but by a motley gathering of demi-gods and deified
saints, household gods, tribal gods, local gods, and can note
how these live on as an undercurrent even after the regular
hierarchy, with its fixed attributes and definite departments,
has been superimposed by some dominant system.
With respect to the Commentary, my definitely mythological
purpose will, I hope, explain some apparent inconsistencies.
My aim has been to discuss in full detail every topographical
point that could bear upon mythology, and, for the sake of
completeness, to touch, but very briefly, on such non-mytho-
logical monuments as were either noted by Pausanias or cer-
tainly existed in his day. Many points, which at first may
seem irrelevant to my purpose, turn out on closer examination
to have a definite mythological significance. For example,
the circuit of the Thucydidean walls and the precinct of the
Pelasgikon might seem to be purely topographical; but their
limits once understood, a flood of light is thrown on the signi-
ficance of the Areopagus cults and the double legend of the
PREFACE
is mentioned in her place on the Acropolis, just as Dionysos
is treated of in his temples and theatre, Asklepios in his hieron.
My rule throughout has been to examine the stranger gods
only as they occur in the text of Pausanias, and to reserve all
thorough investigation of local mythology for the Essay. In this
matter of the distinction between popular local cults with their
endless diversity and the orthodox and ultimately dominant
Olympian hierarchy I should be ungrateful if I did not acknow-
ledge my deep debt to Sir Charles Lyall’s fascinating Asiatic
Studies, a book that shows a marvellous insight into the
“ tangled jungle ” of classic polytheism. The twelve orthodox
Olympian gods have so imposed themselves upon our modern
imagination that it is perhaps only those who, like Sir Charles
Lyall in India, have watched mythology in the making who
can realise a classical world peopled, not by the stately and
plastic figures of Zeus, Hera, Artemis, Apollo, Athene, and
Hephaistos, but by a motley gathering of demi-gods and deified
saints, household gods, tribal gods, local gods, and can note
how these live on as an undercurrent even after the regular
hierarchy, with its fixed attributes and definite departments,
has been superimposed by some dominant system.
With respect to the Commentary, my definitely mythological
purpose will, I hope, explain some apparent inconsistencies.
My aim has been to discuss in full detail every topographical
point that could bear upon mythology, and, for the sake of
completeness, to touch, but very briefly, on such non-mytho-
logical monuments as were either noted by Pausanias or cer-
tainly existed in his day. Many points, which at first may
seem irrelevant to my purpose, turn out on closer examination
to have a definite mythological significance. For example,
the circuit of the Thucydidean walls and the precinct of the
Pelasgikon might seem to be purely topographical; but their
limits once understood, a flood of light is thrown on the signi-
ficance of the Areopagus cults and the double legend of the